The Dream
by Essie Aster
Summary: C/AU. A young woman "dreams" of a hellish encounter with the Sith Apprentice, Darth Maul.


Title: The Dream

Author: Essie Aster('s subconscious)

Category: Star Wars

Genre: Horror

Rating: R

Summary: A young woman "dreams" of a hellish encounter with the Sith Apprentice, Darth Maul. Rating's there for a reason, kids _

A/N: Lame title, I know. But my friends know the story behind it, so ask them, being as they're so fond of tormenting me over it :P Since it is a dream and there are no absolutes, it jumps around a lot and the wording is weird (i.e. sentence fragments, stuff like that). FYI, that was intentional ;)

To Natselane, Utena, Fay, and the rest of you mean, evil children who've been torturing me for the past year - Don't blame me for this. You wanted to know :P

Updates: Just fixing some grammar and typos :D

*****

Silence. Absolute silence. In every direction existed only darkness. Yet, in the emptiness, she sensed...something. An intangible, sourceless emotion that seemed, somehow, familiar. It was a malicious desire - violent, deadly - the intensity of which she could not begin to imagine. With each of her unstable breaths it stalked her, advancing on her until it was almost a concrete presence. But, when she turned, there was nothing.

She had been at rest; she could not remember where. She only had a vague recollection of something tearing her through the boundaries between worlds. She had been dreaming there. Now she was here. Conscious. Able to think and move at will. But was she still dreaming?

She took a step and felt the floor drop from beneath her. She landed on her back, in the centre of a carbon ring, in the centre of Hell's terrain. She remained motionless for a moment, dazed by the impact of her head against the hard lumps of coal. When at last she released her breath, the circle ignited, its walls reaching unfathomable heights. The coals beneath her quickly heated, burning the tender skin of her back and legs, and hastening her recovery from the fall. She tried to roll to her side, to push herself away from the fiery bed, but she was pinned down by the weight of a body on top of her. In the darkness and deep shadows, created by the burning backdrop, she could not see the face of her assailant. When the flames flickered to cast their glow across his demonic features, she found herself regretting ever wanting to know. 

It was only when his bare skin made contact with hers that she realized, with a rush of horror, the state she was in. She pulled away from him, using all of her strength to get out from under his body. She pushed against him, kicked, clawed, pounded - anything to escape as panic welled up inside of her. These efforts only ignited a sadistic gleam in his already savage eyes.

She closed her eyes, shaking her head, trying to convince herself that she was only dreaming. She tried to wake up, to shake herself from her nightmare, but the burning embers that dug into her back were all too real.

'No,' she whispered, looking up into the hate-filled yellow eyes of the animal that held her.

His dark, etched skin felt hot as his body hardened against her. She felt her instincts respond and doubled her efforts of escape. He ignored her thrashings, leaning closer her and sinking his uneven teeth into her shoulder. Growling with rage and fear, she pushed the heel of her palm against his neck and used the strength in both arms to force him away. Undaunted, he knocked her hands aside with the ease of correcting a small child.

The weight of him crushed her smaller form, pushing against her lungs and restricting her breathing. As she opened her mouth for air he covered it with his, forcing his tongue between her clenched teeth. Her mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood - her blood.

She tried to move, but the only movement she was capable of was limited to the point of uselessness, only draining what energy she had. She kicked, trying to keep a clear head as he reached down and touched her. She closed her eyes and choked back her tears. There was nothing else she could do. He had claimed control over every part of her body, and the pain inflicted by his remorseless touch was almost unbearable. Even greater was the pain when she struggled against him, as if it were more than just his hands touching her. Every muscle in her body contracted as he pressed into her, exploring her most safeguarded secrets, inflicting steadily increasing physical and emotional torment.

He pressed his fingers further into her body, and tears sprang into her closed eyes. Pulling his tongue from her mouth, he caught her lip in his teeth, before releasing her from his violent kiss. He forced her head to the side, tracing her jaw line with his tongue as his hand pressed against her collar. A single tear broke loose as his rough palm slid down her chest. Her hands clutched the burning stones as he bit the side of her neck, letting her warm blood form little streams, which cascaded down her front and puddled between her breasts.

None of it was real. It was a dream, a hellish nightmare brought on by, she did not know what. This creature did not exist. She was not here. Nothing was real. Yet every sensation - the heat of the fire lapping at her soft skin, the taste of her blood and the warmth of his tongue in her mouth, the ache of her virgin body under his brutal assault - loudly declared the validity of the present.

'Please,' she whispered, her thin, quiet voice echoing in the heated air, 'stop.'

He pulled his fingers out of her and forced her to meet his gaze. His eyes, the yellow eyes of a monster, gleamed with a cruel hunger. He had heard her plea, and it amused him. This woman, a lesser being of a weak race, begging him to stop, and he had barely started. Wordlessly, he told her what awaited her, the agony and torture he had only just begun to inflict. She cowered as he continued to hold her in his gaze.

'Don't, please, don't,' she begged, wishing that he would just destroy her and be done with it, and knowing that her wish only prolonged her torment. She saw the corner of his lips twitch in a sadistic smile as he gently touched her face, letting her feel the wetness of a place she had never been.

Her spirit broke. She closed her eyes, letting her tears fall silently as despair washed over her. Her next sensation was of his mouth on her, biting her again. His tongue flicked out to taste the inside of her thigh before his teeth broke the skin. The coals turned to dust in her grip as his tongue flicked out again, penetrating where his fingers had been. Her face reddened as she forced into silence the sobs that tore through her. She prayed for an end, for a quick death, or the mercy of unconsciousness. Neither came.

He covered her mouth with his, and she obediently parted her lips to admit his intrusive tongue. She gagged, tasting his saliva mingled with the same fluids he had touched against her cheek.

He reached down again with both hands as he continued to cut off her air. But she fought back with renewed energy. Something in her, a last reserve of defiance she had thought to be depleted, re-ignited. With what little strength she had left, she managed to cross her ankles and force her arm under his chest. He growled in response, forcing her arm away, breaking it in the process. He backhanded her as a punishment, snapping her head to the side and leaving her dazed long enough for him to force her legs apart.

In desperation, she gripped his chest and dug her nails into the patterns on his skin. She tried to fight harder, but the feel of him rubbing against her scrambled any coherent thought or plan of resistance. She shook her head, repeating her verbal plea for an end.

Her torso arched back, and she screamed for the first time, unconsciously gashing his chest with her nails, as he imbedding himself inside of her. She felt a warm fluid soak her legs as he pushed against her, forcing himself deeper and deeper into her. He hesitated a fraction of a second each time before continuing, ramming himself against her again and again. Her mind was scattered, the only clear thought the fear of her body breaking under his violence; and still, he continued. The frequency and force of his thrusts rapidly increased as he held onto her waist, leaving palm-sized bruises where he touched.

At last, she was unable to conceal her tears from him. She sensed it only intensified his pleasure, but she was too weak to fight the sobs that choked her. She felt him smile against her chest as he resumed biting - her neck, her shoulder, anywhere to inflict pain. An invisible hand slowly constricted around her neck, and then released, teasing her with the hope of death. And still, he did not stop. An eternity had passed, and her mind balanced, mercifully, at the edge of unconsciousness as the release finally came. He let her go as his hand closed around her neck, the sensation of her crushing windpipe under the force of his palm giving him more pleasure than everything else he had done to her. He could smell the fear, pure fear, mixed with sweat and blood. Despite her desire for its embrace, her body instinctively rebelled against death, and her eyes filled with a new form of terror. She looked up, meeting his cold gaze again, just before her vision narrowed and she slipped away.

*****

She breathed, filling her lungs with the frigid air from the open window. Her fingers had a white-knuckled grasp on the sides of her bed as she sat up and opened her eyes. Her room was dark, the pale glow of the moon and stars, refracted off of the full-length mirror and the double-paned window, casting eerie shadows in every corner of her room. But it was her room.

She sighed and stood to close the wide-open window, but her knees buckled under her weight, and she collapsed back onto her bed. She had never woken from a dream and ached so much. Every muscle was sore, her arm spasming uncontrollably as she reached for her missing afghan. Giving up the search, she wrapped her arms around her, feeling the heat of her bare breasts against her forearms. Her heart stopped as a quiet gasp escaped her swollen lips.

She shook her head.

She turned on a nearby lamp and looked down at her naked body. Her palms were an angry red, her right forearm covered with a black bruise. She ran her fingers gently over her shoulders and up her neck. The entire track was pockmarked with jagged cuts in small crescents. Dried blood left small tracks where it had smeared over her chest. Her waist looked to have been crushed, covered in two, nearly solid, bruises on either side, and her legs were drenched in blood. She leaned back against her bedpost for support as dizziness passed over her. Taking a deep breath, she looked down at her bed, feeling a wave of nausea at the sight of her blood-soaked covers.

'It was a nightmare,' she argued. 'It...' She took a moment to calm her breathing before pushing herself off the bed. She looked down at the pile of torn fabric that had been her pajamas.

As she braced her back against the windowsill, she felt a familiar, unwelcome presence. She closed her eyes, afraid to look. She opened them slowly, watching the glowing clock change to the time when her alarm was set to go off. She waited for the chime, the noise that would pull her out of this hell, but another minute passed by, and it never came. Suddenly she jumped, the unexpected noise of the abnormally loud alarm stopping her heart and jolting her gaze straight ahead. She looked at the cloaked figure blocking her doorway as she teetered on the edge of consciousness. He let the hood of his cloak fall back, the bent moonlight glinting off his demonic eyes. She covered her mouth with her hand, sobbing as she sank to her knees, too afraid to stand.

*Owari*

Endnote: and we wonder why Kittie doesn't like the scary Darth Maul song ... *chases Fay and Nessie with the comic book* :P

Hn, btw, kiddies, that was embellished only in language, not in context :P


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